I haven’t
been to an RWA conference in three years, so Orlando was a reintroduction. I
arrived Wednesday morning after spending the night at the Hampton Inn in Melbourne,
which was far less expensive than spending an extra night in Disney. Actually a
night in Bali is probably cheaper than spending a night on a Disney property. I
hadn’t planned to leave home until Wed. morning, but when I heard Mark Dawson
was giving a workshop at 1 p.m. Wed. and that meant I’d have to leave home at
the crack of dawn, well, I don’t do the crack of dawn well without looking like
a zombie, so I left Tuesday night.Free breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Quiet. Great hairdryer. They even gave me toothpaste, because in my rush to pack two suitcases, a coffee maker, swag, a dozen dresses and outfits I would never end up wearing, AND a bathing suit (swim at RWA? WHAT was I thinking?!!!), I forgot toothpaste.
Then it
was the drive to Orlando, after muttering a few Hail Mary prayers and
sacrificing a chicken, because I loathe driving in Orlando. Even though I live
in South Florida, I hate Orlando traffic. At least in S. Florida I know how to
merge. And dodge and weave. Orlando is just… blockage. I suppose that sounds
like something you experience in your colon once in a while, but that’s an apt
analogy.
Anyway,
I got to the hotel around 11 and self-parked, after a nice bellman put all my
stuff on a luggage cart and whisked it away. I couldn’t get into my room until
much later, so met up with Sharon Hartley and Cindy Thomason, two good friends.
I stole half of Cindy’s sandwich at the Peekaboo cafeteria, where I guess the
peekaboo part was where you see the cashier ring up the price of your first
born child.
We all
went to Mark’s workshop, which was crowded. and hot, as in Dante’s Seventh
Circle of Hell. No a/c. I took lots of notes. Mark conveyed his marketing
wisdom, which included ways to beat the Facebook plan to make us all dole out
money to boost posts so our readers and followers can see them. This includes
doing FB live, the latest trend. He also talked about FB Messenger, the latest
way you can dump all your promo dollars into FB. This is where you actually
message your followers on your business/author page. It pops up on your phone.
It’s annoying but the same as what ppl complained about email years ago. Those
are the two things that I remember from his workshop, without referring to my
notes. He’s a promo genius… got us all to sign up for his newsletter through
his author page so that throughout the conference, his FB messenger app kept
sending me polite reminders, like an annoying aunt who keeps nagging you to
come to dinner and see her before she drops dead. Note to self: check out FB
messenger for people to annoy so I can pop up on their phone at inopportune
times, like during an RWA workshop when I’m trying to take notes on my cell.
My room
was ready so no more workshops for me. Instead, I went upstairs and unpacked
all my clothing and fabulous swag, put books and bookmarks in the Goody Room.
Tamara Lush, a good friend from TARA, texted me, but I had dinner plans. Went
to Mulino New York Trattoria, a very nice Italian restaurant in the Swan hotel
(I was in the Dolphin). I met Patience, my editor, and some of the other
delightful HRS authors. We talked about food, NY, everything. Beverly Long was
there. She was so sweet. I always wanted to meet her but was too shy to tell
her. And so was Amelia Autin, who was a RITA finalist. She told us sweet
stories about how romantic her hubby was. It was a wonderful dinner, and I had
the beef, for which I was glad, because you will find out later.
Then it was back to the Dolphin for the Kiss of Death
Awards. I had
finaled in the Daphne for Navy Seal Seduction, my first HRS book.
I didn’t win, but it was fun to participate in an awards show for which I
actually had finaled!
After that I went to the bar in the Dolphin for a nanosecond,
but I was too tired to hang out long, so I headed to bed.
Thursday was a busy workshop day. First I had breakfast with
my good friend Renee Ryan, where we caught up, talked about the industry and
Renee’s first granddaughter. I still am in total shock that Renee, who looks
like a cover model, has a granddaughter. I had a breakfast of nuts and crunchy
stuff like bolts and screws (it felt like that when I ate them, and only the
good Lord knows what that stuff did to my poor colon). I did a workshop after
that and then went to the Golden Heart Awards Lunch with my friend Cindy, but
we had to split apart because it was crowded. It was only one of two meals at
the conference, and everyone was taking advantage. The chicken was not rubber
chicken, actually very good, with risotto, my new favorite side dish.
After, I went to Shirley Jump’s workshop on conflict. I had
thought about the Fictional Felonies workshop, but I’m always trying to put
more conflict into my books. One good rule of thumb is at a conference, pick
the workshops by people who know what they are doing and if there is a conflict
with another one you like, get the tapes. I am going to join Mystery Writers,
which has wonderful resources, so I skipped the felony workshop.
I went to the bar, where I met Tamara Lush and other
binders, including the very excite and sweet Stacy, who just sold to Hallmark
movies. Stacy wanted to celebrate, so they found a hallway where it was less
crowded, ordered drinks and everyone chatted. Great group of women! They were
going to the RITA awards, but I was hungry and then Cindy texted me to ask me
what I was doing.
Then Cindy and Sharon and I ordered pizza in their room,
since we decided to skip the Rita awards. Instead, we watched them via live
stream, which was more relaxing. After, we went to the Avon after party. Cindy
and Sharon stayed, but I went back to my room. This conference, I was a party
pooper and didn’t stay out very late. Mainly, I really wanted to make all the
early appointments and workshops.
Friday, at 8:30 I attended a wonderful and very informative
workshop called Cattle Ranching for Dummies by Becke Turner, who actually owned
a cow and calf ranch in southern Missouri. It was fascinating. Since Becke’s
husband worked in town, she pretty much ran the ranch on her own. It was great
information, since I write about cowboys and plan a new series featuring a
ranch. Learning how to castrate calves was extremely useful. (Note to
self:Share with DH over a romantic dinner tonight. Ha).
One thing RWA featured this year that I took advantage of
was the “Expert Hour,” in which you attend mini sessions on various themes. I
attended the Productivity hour, and the most useful takeaway was OneNote by
Microsoft, in which you can organize your workshop notes. I actually took notes
after downloading the app. Hoping to figure this out so I can organize all my
writing notes.
I liked it so much I stayed for the next “Expert Hour” on
social media. Amy Alessio and Mel Jolly gave a great 20-minute overview of
promoting on social media, including ways to get more visibility on FB on your
author page, which seems to show up in your reader’s feed about as many times
as a comet in the sky. A few tricks? Post quizzes, polls, things to get your
readers to interact. Even if you have a PA, have authentic content. You can
reuse it, but spread it out over different platforms. Put different content on
different platforms each day. They actually use spreadsheets for their content
for authors they work for.
Next was the keynote with Susan Wiggs. I met a longtime
friend,
Alice Gaines, who writes for Entangled and made USA Today with them
(YAY!!!). We sat together and ate beef with purple cauliflower (WTH?). Susan is
an inspiring speaker. I was using my cell to post little quotes from her
speech.
This conference, I barely used Twitter. In years past, I
would tweet things from workshops, but this year, I used Instagram more. I’d
take a photo with my cell phone, and post to FB, Instagram and Twitter. It
makes it much easier to have all of them linked together. Photos used to post
to my author page, but now FB directs the feed to my personal page. Note to
self: See if I can fix that.
I didn’t attend the Amazon Indie Meet and Greet. Thought
about it. But again, my priority at this conference was different. I honestly
didn’t want to meet an Amazon rep who would tell me that KU is the way to
promote. I did attend a great workshop on Nook Press instead. It was much
smaller, I received good information about all kinds of promotions they are
rolling out, including Nook first, in which your books are featured in a sale
two weeks prior to other platforms. My goal as an indie author is to look for
other ways to promote on other platforms instead of Amazon, which keeps
changing their algorithms as many times as Donald Trump tweets.
Friday night is usually the publisher parties. The HQ party
started at 8 p.m. and since Cindy’s birthday is next month, we went to dinner.
Everything was crowded… except the Italian restaurant at the Swan. So I ate
Italian, again. But it was good. Then we went back to Cindy’s room, and Cindy
and Sharon and I went downstairs to meet Sharon’s friend and TARA pal Carol
Post (who also finaled for the RITA awards) get an Uber.
That was really funny.
Our driver was named Luis. Cindy got the Uber, her second
time in ordering one. You can see on the app where Luis is, and where his car
is going. And his rating as a driver. Cindy said, “Luis has a 4.4 rating. Uh
oh.” We watched Luis and his little dot of a car on Cindy’s cell screen going
around and around and then out to the Parkway, which meant he was NOT going to
find us, so we hailed a cab.
There was lots of dancing and chocolate and more chocolate
and wine and some kind of lemon champagne (uck) at the HQ party. We saw Heather
Graham and Dennis (yay!) and Erin McCarthy. We didn’t stay past 10:30. We were
tired and the DJ kept playing hip-hop instead of the dance tunes we liked. We
shared a cab with the amazing Carla Cassidy, whom I admire very much.
Saturday, I went to the best workshop of the entire
conference. It was a PAN workshop on Story Genius by Lisa Cron. Amazing. I sat
next to Stacy Kade, whom I hadn’t seen at conference the entire time, so it was
nice to see her again. Stacy said something that is very true. What Lisa told
us is something we do intuitively as writers, but she actually gave us a
process to follow. And that is always helpful when you are writing, or
drafting, or rewriting.
My only regret is that I took paper notes and not notes on
my alpha smart. Lisa is a huge fan of romance writers.
The workshop was from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. I did not
leave the entire time, but my butt was glued to the chair the entire three
hours. Afterward, I got up feeling like I was covered in concrete. But it was
worth it. PAN workshops are NOT recorded, so I’m glad I attended Lisa’s
workshop. I’ll post highlights later in another blog post.
After, I needed alone time. I went upstairs, changed into
shorts and a Tshirt and went with my alpha smart to look for a quiet place to
review my workshop notes. But I ran into Tina, Elayne and Janet from my
chapter, who were searching for lunch, so I went with them to a burger grille
place on the boardwalk. It was crowded, with a 20 minute wait for a table, so
we sat at the bar. I had to leave them early to get ready for the booksigning.
I went downstairs to the Pacific ballroom for the signing,
which started at 3 p.m. and lasted until 5 pm. What was most fun was seeing
Edie and Ody, friends from my RWA chapter. They write as Jane Ederlyn and this
was their first signing. They were so excited that I got tears in my eyes.
Their passion and excitement reminded me of those incredible first moments when
you get published.
The signing was crowded. Amazing. I sat between Rachel Van
Dyken, who is amazingly popular. She has fans who wear T-shirts with her “club”
of readers. Watching Rachel was educational. She interacted with everyone.
Insisted on taking photos with them, and she was genuinely affectionate and
happy to greet each one. I’ve seen this before in booksignings with other
authors. It’s challenging for authors who are naturally introverted, but if you
remember that we’re all readers, and lovers of romance, it helps to overcome
your shyness. I also sat next to Victoria Vane, who lives in S. Carolina and
writes hot cowboys for Sourcebooks, and historicals as well. She’s a hoot and
so sweet. She had a pink lasso, which I envied. Never thought I’d have lasso
envy. (note to self: purchase pink lasso at Boot Barn to rope and tie up DH.
Yee Haw)
I met some wonderful readers who loved my books (including Tina, pictured here), which is
always so sweet to hear! As an author, you sit behind a keyboard, hoping that
your books will resonate with readers, and it’s always wonderful to hear it
straight from a reader how much they enjoyed your work. Some readers enjoy my
Werewolves of Montana series, some because they feature curvy girls. Others
like the HQ books. I also met Chanpreet Singh, a huge fan of my Egyptian
historicals. She brought all of them for me to sign. Because they were not
allowed to take in outside books, I met her outside in the hallway after and
signed them for her. She loves those books because they were so different. I
loved writing them as well, and it was so much fun to meet and talk with her.
After the signing, I went with Edie and Odie, their friends
and Gennita Low to dinner. And guess where we went?
Right. The Italian restaurant. Ha. It was good I had the
beef on Thursday night, because I was slowly making my way through the pasta
dishes the other nights! I ordered the spaghetti carbonara, which was
excellent, and Gennita entertained us with stories about her squirrel, which
she goes running with on a leash and makes her neighbors scratch their heads
because the squirrel runs on the grass so it looks like she has a leash with
nothing on it, as you can’t see the squirrel.
And then we watched the fireworks at Epcot. I said my
good-byes because my back and feet were aching, and gave hugs and retired for
the night. Now it’s time to head home to hubs and the doggies. I had a
wonderful conference, positive and energetic, and the best part of all was
seeing all the fans and readers at the booksigning. Not necessarily MY fans,
but all the readers. Because I have worried about this industry and talk at the
conference about ALL the changes in publishing make you wonder where everything
is headed.
Recently someone told me, “No one reads books anymore.” That
kind of blanket statement is troubling, but when I saw all the readers at RWA,
hundreds and hundreds of them, who were so excited to see their favorite
authors, my heart is glad. Maybe “no one” reads books anymore, but damn,
thousands of REAL PEOPLE do read, and love books and romance, and that is what
it is all about. In the end, all the workshops, notes, learning and techniques
and promotion all boils down to one thing – the readers. the readers are why we
write. The readers are the ones who escape into the worlds we create for a
rich, deeply emotional and satisfying experience. The readers are the ones who
matter most – and for them, I give them a huge THANK YOU. Romance readers rock!
And so does Italian food. Seriously!
